Thesis Defended!

I passed my thesis defense on June 6th! To save time, I'm just pasting in an email I wrote to my mom about it

It poured hard the entire day of my defense, which I actually liked. I had to go back and forth a lot on that day, and I like biking in the intense rain here.

This was the email convo right before I started:

It’s canceled because of the rain, correct?

--

Benjamin Baiser

haha yep, way too wet for a defense. let’s all head to the top! 

Todd

www.thepalmerlab.com

(the Top is the famous academic bar. Mom that's where we met Todd when you visited) Colette was skyping in from DC as she is on NSF detail this year.

I provided snacks that were all in some way pollinated: gucamole with chips, dark chocolate covered honey grahams, raspberries, and trail mix (with almonds, chocolate, and cranberries)

After the ordeal and grilling was over they gave me big hugs and congratulated me and the department chair, Marta, said it was sad news (b/c it meant I'd be leaving)

I went to cold stone creamery that Elisha treated afterwards then went to Mark's b/c I'm dogsitting his and his gf's 3 dogs while they're at a festival in Tennessee. Then Todd took me out to dinner for a yummy burger and gave both Elisha and I a present of a very fancy bottle of tequila. Elisha googled it and it's like $50, which is way more than I'd ever spend! I was wondering if I could return it somehow! haha  My friends met me at the Top after dinner for drinks and to hang out

I didn't sleep in as much as I would have liked b/c I needed to take care of the dogs, but after taking care of the dogs I drove to ichetucknee springs. It was a day of perfect timing. It poured crazily on the way. So hard, I had to pull over a couple of times b/c I couldn't see. But when I got to the springs, the sun was even peaking out. I had lunch at the head spring and then hopped in a tube and tubed down the entire river. I was the only one on the river! It was nice and peaceful to relax and reflect. Just me and the turtles, birds, fish, and a couple deer. It's unusual to see no one on the river. Even in the winter Elisha and I usually see a couple kaykers. Maybe a couple times on cold days did we not see anyone. And after memorial day it's supposed to be crazy. They actually limit how many people can do the river from the top so I've heard you have to go early. But I guess being a potentially rainy weekday kept people away. The float took about 3 hours. I only had one brief sprinkle and the sun often came out. Most the time you could hear the distant rumble of thunder.  After floating, I had a 7 mile bike ride back to the start. I could see the dark clouds coming! 

I got to the car just as the first drops hit. Then the sky opened up and it rained like crazy. I was in my swimsuit, and I love being out in warm rain if you're just in your suit. So I went out and went swimming in the head spring. I didn't want to get the car wet, so I figured I'd wait the storm out (usually the intense rains don't last long). But it kept going and going. So after swimming, I hiked the little nature trail in the area. Still the rain continued. Eventually I decided, I'm just going to get in the car. It poured like crazy all the way home. The interstate was scary, and sure enough there was a big accident just before my exit, so I made it off just in time. 

It was flooding in gainesville and on campus. Where I park my car, there was knee deep water. We usually play beach volleyball on Wednesday nights, but they cancelled it, so I asked my friends Zach and Cody if they wanted to go tubing on campus. There's a tiny, itty bitty creek that runs between the Biology building and the medical complex that I call Bio creek. Just a trickle. But I noticed the other day while running in a hard rain that it had been flowing really well, so I knew it would be going crazy today. It was fun. Flowing really fast for a Florida creek. I wonder if anyone has ever done it before. I doubt it. We might have had a first descent of the bio creek! Cody posted a video of it on fb, and all the bio nerds thought it was the coolest thing ever.

After drying off, I went to dinner at La Tienda (again a treat of Elisha), and then snuggled with the dogs while listening to the rain and watching game 3 of the NBA finals.